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THE influx of refugees from East Africa to Melbourne's west
makes it just the place for Ethiopian musician Tesfalem Kidane to
realise his dream.

The Ascot Vale musician says that when he first came to
Australia five years ago as a backing musician for Ethiopian pop
singer Tertaraw, he was taken aback by divisions in Australia's
Ethiopian community.

"I thought it was just one community," he says. "But when I got
here, people were separated by different community groups."

Kidane, a refugee of Tigrean background, says there was feuding
between Tigreans and Amhara, two of Ethiopia's main ethnic groups.
In music, he believes, lies the power to overcome such
differences.

Already, the 35-year-old keyboard player has performed with two
musicians from Eritrea, a nation formerly part of Ethiopia which
has been locked in a long war with its neighbour. "I love it, to
break that enmity," Kidane says.

His Salem East African Band will perform in the Big West
festival next Saturday. The band includes Anbessa Gebrehiwot, an
Ethiopian-born Eritrean. "We're just starting, it is just a small
step," Kidane says.

On the same bill are the Eritrean Star band and Sudanese
musicians Sudan Azza and Ajak Kwai as well as Musiki Manjaro, who
draw on Congolese music. Kidane is excited by the possibility that
this array of African music may bring him closer to his dream to
have musicians from different East African countries join his
band.

Kidane was a musician in an Ethiopian government band for 10
years but quit when the regime stopped him singing certain songs.
He was granted a protection visa when he applied for asylum during
his tour of Australia in 2003.

Two of his brothers were soldiers killed in Ethiopia's conflict,
while his younger sister is missing, with the International Red
Cross unable to locate her.

Kidane's hope is that one day instead of buying weapons,
governments in the area will buy tractors for farmers. "We are
tired of war," he says.

The biennial Big West Festival is a celebration of the people,
cultures and spaces in Melbourne's western suburbs and runs from
November 23 to December 2.

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Way out west: Tesfalem Kidane, performing in the Big West Festival weekend, hopes his musical collaborations can bringcommunities together.

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